Scottish Crown Estate strategic management plan: environmental report

5 Monitoring

5.1.1 Section 19 of the 2005 Act requires that the Responsible Authority monitors the significant environmental effects of the implementation of the Strategic Management Plan in order to identify any unforeseen adverse effects at an early stage and undertake appropriate remedial action.

5.1.2 The Scottish Crown Estate Act provides for a national framework to govern management of the assets at the national and local level. This framework includes national reporting and accounting arrangements.

5.1.3 The Scottish Government will monitor implementation of the plan, delivery of the objectives, priorities and policies and alignment with wider objectives, priorities and policies. The Scottish Government will work with Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) and prospective managers of Scottish Crown Estate assets to ensure that appropriate monitoring is undertaken alongside wider monitoring under the National Performance Framework.

5.1.4 The monitoring and review of the plan will be informed by the delivery of targets and indicators in Crown Estate Scotland (Interim Management) corporate plans and any management plans prepared by other managers. Corporate plans and management plans should set out how the manager plans to manage the asset under their management over the next 3 years and should include:

• the manager's objectives for the period;
• the activities the manager proposes to undertake during that period;
• any risks associated with those activities;
• outcomes against which the achievement of the objectives may be assessed;
• how the manager proposes to maintain and seek to enhance the value of the assets under their management;
• and to set out whether the manager proposes to dispose of any Scottish Crown Estate assets during that period and, if so, how the manager proposes to use any proceeds of the disposal.

5.1.5 Annual reports also provide an assessment of how a manager has performed against the objectives. Therefore, annual reports and management plans will be one method used to monitor the performance of the managers of the assets.

5.1.6 Monitoring for SEA purposes will also be aligned with monitoring for the Value Project which is a tool being developed to better understand, measure and monitor the benefits generated from the Scottish Crown Estate.

5.1.7 The Value Project will identify the different types of benefits (social, economic, environmental) generated from the assets. Therefore the proposed monitoring and reporting mechanism for monitoring environmental effects would include use of this monitoring tool. It is recommended that the monitoring could also include gathering data on the location and extent of activities associated with the Strategic Management Plan objectives, priorities and policies and potential environmental effects.

5.1.8 As stated in the Investment Strategy, it is expected that this Value Project will provide an appropriate monitoring framework for the purposes of SEA. Further information on the monitoring framework will provided as part of the SEA Post Adoption Process.